‘I hope,sister,things are not so very bad with you neither-considering.Sir Thomas says you will have six hundred a year.’
‘Lady Bertram,I do not complain.I know I cannot live as I have done,but I must retrench where I can,and learn to be a better manager.I have been a liberal housekeeper enough,but I shall not be ashamed to practise economy now.My situation is as much altered as my income.A great many things were due from poor Mr Norris as clergyman of the parish,that cannot be expected from me.It is unknown how much was consumed in our kitchen by odd comers and goers.At the White House,matters must be better looked after.I must live within my income,or I shall be miserable;and I own it would give me great satisfaction to be able to do rather more-to lay by a little at the end of the year.’
‘I dare say you will.You always do,don't you?’
‘My object,Lady Bertram,is to be of use to those that come after me.It is for your children's good that I wish to be richer.I have nobody else to care for,but I should be very glad to think I could leave a little trifle among them,worth their having.’
‘You are very good,but do not trouble yourself about them.They are sure of being well provided for.Sir Thomas will take care of that.’
‘Why,you know Sir Thomas's means will be rather straitened,if the Antigua estate is to make such poor returns.’
‘Oh!that will soon be settled.Sir Thomas has been writing about it,I know.’
‘Well,Lady Bertram,’said Mrs Norris,moving to go,‘I can only say that my sole desire is to be of use to your family-and so if Sir Thomas should ever speak again about my taking Fanny,you will be able to say,that my health and spirits put it quite out of the ques-tion-besides that,I really should not have a bed to give her,for I must keep a spare-room for a friend.’
Lady Bertram repeated enough of this conversation to her husband,to convince him how much he had mistaken his sister-in-law's views;and she was from that moment perfectly safe from all expectation,or the slightest allusion to it from him.He could not but wonder at her refusing to do anything for a niece,whom she had been so forward to adopt;but as she took early care to make him,as well as Lady Bertram,understand that whatever she possessed was designed for their family,he soon grew reconciled to a distinction,which at the same time that it was advantageous and complimentary to them,would enable him better to provide for Fanny himself.
Fanny soon learnt how unnecessary had been her fears of a removal;and her spontaneous,untaught felicity on the discovery,conveyed some consolation to Edmund for his disappointment in what he had expected to be so essentially serviceable to her.Mrs Norris took possession of the White House,the Grants arrived at the Parsonage,and these events over,everything at Mansfield went on for some time as usual.
The Grants showing a disposition to be friendly and sociable,gave great satisfaction in the main among their new acquaintance.They had their faults,and Mrs Norris soon found them out.The Dr was very fond of eating,and would have a good dinner every day;and Mrs Grant,instead of contriving to gratify him at little expense,gave her cook as high wages as they did at Mansfield Park,and was scarcely ever seen in her offices.Mrs Norris could not speak with any temper of such grievances,nor of the quantity of butter and eggs that were regularly consumed in the house.‘Nobody loved plenty and hospitality more than herself-nobody more hated pitiful doings-the parsonage she believed had never been wanting in comforts of any sort,had never borne a bad character in her time,but this was a way of going on that she could not understand.A fine lady in a country parsonage was quite out of place.Her storeroom she thought might have been good enough for Mrs Grant to go into.Enquire where she would,she could not find out that Mrs Grant had ever had more than five thousand pounds.’
Lady Bertram listened without much interest to this sort of invective.She could not enter into the wrongs of an economist,but she felt all the injuries of beauty in Mrs Grant's being so well settled in life without being handsome,and expressed her astonishment on that point almost as often,though not so diffusely,as Mrs Norris discussed the other.
These opinions had been hardly canvassed a year,before another event arose of such importance in the family,as might fairly claim some place in the thoughts and conversation of the ladies.Sir Thomas found it expedient to go to Antigua himself,for the better arrangement of his affairs,and he took his eldest son with him in the hope of detaching him from some bad connections at home.They left England with the probability of being nearly a twelvemonth absent.
The necessity of the measure in a pecuniary light,and the hope of its utility to his son,reconciled Sir Thomas to the effort of quitting the rest of his family,and of leaving his daughters to the direction of others at their present most interesting time of life.He could not think Lady Bertram quite equal to supply his place with them,or rather to perform what should have been her own;but in Mrs Norris's watchful attention,and in Edmund's judgment,he had sufficient confidence to make him go without fears for their conduct.
Lady Bertram did not at all like to have her husband leave her;but she was not disturbed by any alarm for his safety,or solicitude for his comfort,being one of those persons who think nothing can be dangerous or difficult,or fatiguing to anybody but themselves.